Onshore Energy Security Program takes off

James Johnson

Search for new energy sources is underway

The Australian Government’s Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP)
was announced by the Prime Minister in August last year (see AusGeo News 84)
as part of a broader package of energy exploration initiatives. The $59 million,
five-year program will deliver pre-competitive data packages and fresh, scientifically
based assessments of the potential for onshore energy resources such as oil,
gas, uranium, thorium and geothermal energy.

An OESP working plan has been developed in consultation with state and Northern
Territory geological surveys and peak minerals and petroleum industry bodies,
including the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association
and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies. The proposed program
has also been presented at several industry conferences to obtain feedback
directly from industry.

As the major program to be undertaken by Geoscience Australia’s Onshore
Energy and Minerals Division over the next five years, the OESP is expected
to significantly boost investment in exploration for onshore energy resources.
It will complement Geoscience Australia’s major energy program to encourage
offshore exploration for hydrocarbons in frontier regions, also funded under
the Energy Security Program.

New national and regional projects

Three new national onshore projects focused on energy commodities have begun—geothermal,
hydrocarbon and uranium. Data acquisition for these projects is underway,
including a continent-wide radiometric survey that commenced in March (see
AusGeo News 84) and the National Geochemical Survey of Australia (see below).

Figure 2. Area of aeromagnetic data acquisition
in the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Data acquisition began in April 2007.
(Larger image
[GIF 253.7kb])

National-scale projects will be supported by targeted regional projects over
two or three years to assess the potential for energy resources in specific
regions. The projects will involve seismic, airborne electromagnetic (AEM),
magnetotelluric and other geophysical surveys, as well as multidisciplinary
research through the acquisition of new geochronological, geological and geochemical
data. Important early phases of these projects (to be undertaken in collaboration
with state and Northern Territory geological surveys) will include the compilation
of available information and the definition of specific scientific problems
to guide new data acquisition, interpretation, synthesis and delivery phases.

Some of these projects are further advanced than others, with some geophysical
surveys either already begun or about to begin. As these regional projects
are completed, new projects will be developed.

Data acquisition

Continent-wide acquisition of new airborne radiometric data began in March
2007 and is due to be completed within 12 months (figure
1). The tie-line survey data (75 kilometres nominal line spacing) will
provide a national radiometrics datum to adjust existing radiometric data
to a common datum. This will assist the assessment of the uranium and thorium
potential of the Australian continent. The survey will also provide an important
dataset for a wide range of other uses, including land and environmental management.

The National Geochemical Survey of Australia will sample transported regolith
at surface and at 60 to 80 centimetres depth from approximately 1400 large
catchments across most of the continent. This will be the first dataset of
its kind for Australia, and will deliver new national-scale geochemical data
on uranium, thorium and a wide range of other elements related to energy and
other mineral commodities. In a second geochemical initiative under the OESP,
a regional program of geochemical re-analysis of calcrete samples from the
Gawler Craton of South Australia for uranium, thorium and other elements is
underway, in collaboration with Primary Industries and Resources South Australia.

Acquisition of aeromagnetic data in the Canning Basin of northern Western
Australia began in April 2007 (figure
2) to aid the planning of a future seismic survey. Both datasets will
be used to reassess the petroleum and gas potential of the onshore part of
the basin. In addition, seismic data tapes from surveys of the Canning Basin
in the 1980s are being remastered to modern digital formats in collaboration
with the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

A program of deep seismic data acquisition in the Mt Isa region of Queensland
was completed in December 2006 in collaboration with the Geological Survey
of Queensland. A further major seismic survey in the Cloncurry–Georgetown–Charters
Towers regions of northwest and north Queensland commenced in May 2007 (figure
3). Both these surveys will greatly assist the assessment of the potential
of northwest Queensland for new uranium and geothermal energy resources.

A major AEM survey of the Paterson Province of northern Western Australia
is due to begin in July 2007 (figure
4). The results will be used to assess the region’s potential for
uranium resources. The undeveloped Kintyre uranium deposit, discovered in
1985, and the operating Telfer gold mine are close to or within the region
of the new survey. This survey is the first of several AEM surveys being scoped
across the continent to target uranium and thorium mineral systems. The AEM
data may also be used for a variety of other purposes, such as land and water
management.

Parts of the Cooper Basin in southwest Queensland will be covered by a new
gravity survey that began in May 2007 (figure
5). The survey is gathering new data to aid the assessment of the geothermal
and hydrocarbon potential of the southwest Queensland section of the basin.
Seismic surveys are also being scoped in New South Wales, Queensland, South
Australia, the Northern Territory, and northern Western Australia. Included
in these is a proposal to acquire seismic data in the southeastern Darling
Basin in western New South Wales to define the nature of the sedimentary fill
and basement structure, and test the hydrocarbon potential of a poorly explored
part of the basin.